Zverev holds off Carreno Busta in Cincinnati third round
Alexander Zverev scraped past Pablo Carreno Busta in two tight sets on Friday in Cincinnati. Zverev will play the winner of the match between Ben Shelton and Fabian Marozsan.
Alexander Zverev is through to the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Open after beating Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5, 7-6 (6) at the Lindner Family Tennis Center on Friday afternoon.
Zverev should have had an easier time of things in the second set. The world No 4 led by a break and had four break points to go up by a double-break before his opponent mounted a brief comeback. Zverev also missed match points at 6-4 and 6-5 in the second-set tie tiebreak.
Zverev will next play the winner of the match between American Ben Shelton, the No 12 seed, and Hungarian Fabian Marozsan next. Ahead of his victory, the German made quick work of Russian Karen Khachanov (6-3, 6-2).
Carreno Busta defeated American Sebastian Korda, the No 16 seed (7-5, 6-1) and Australian wild card Max Purcell (6-3, 6-3) in the previous rounds in Cincinnati as he continues his comeback from injury.
Cincinnati Masters 1000, other last 16 results:
- Frances Tiafoe vs. Jiri Lehecka
- Hubert Hurkacz vs. Flavio Cobolli
- Ben Shelton vs. Fabian Marozsan
- Jannik Sinner vs. Jordan Thompson
- Andrey Rublev (6) beat Brandon Nakashima (WC): 7-6 (5), 6-1